Health Ministry sweetens pill
After getting the cold shoulder from private doctors unwilling to work at rural public hospitals and health centers facing serious staff shortages and antagonizing their unions by threatening repercussions, the government is sweetening the pill with better terms.
According to Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, rural regions will be divided into two categories depending on the shortages of their public health systems and the lack of a response to invitations for filling the void. By including the latter criterion, not-so-remote Sparta, for example, will be elevated from the lower to the higher category because response has been nil.
Under the draft law that the minister plans to bring to Parliament this week, doctors who agree to take up jobs in the higher category will receive a salary increase of 3,600 euros a year and double that for covering gaps in specialized fields with the greatest shortages.
Those assuming posts in the second category, where the shortages are less severe, will receive a raise of 2,400 euros and 4,800 euros, respectively, Georgiadis clarified. He added that the legislation will also grant him greater powers to deal with the issue of staff shortages more directly.
